Gunther Lost His Intercontinental Championship In A Shock Upset At WrestleMania 40, And Fans Have So Many Thoughts

After more than 650 days as Intercontinental Champion, Gunther’s historic run came to an end tonight. The Ring General was pinned by Sami Zayn in what’ll go down as one of the most shocking upsets in WrestleMania history. Even after taking multiple finishers and a brainbuster on the turnbuckle, I assumed he would kick out, but he took the three count, giving us a new IC Champ for the first time in almost two years. Hours later, I still have very conflicted feelings about what happened, and judging by social media, I’m definitely not the only one.

I follow dozens of wrestling journalists and fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, and I also manually went through hundreds of tweets about Gunther. It seems like the most common reactions pretty much fall into three different camps. So, let’s talk out each one of them, and I’ll share some of my own feelings.

The first and by far the most common reaction was a straight up celebration of Gunther and what he’s accomplished. Whether individual fans were happy about the loss or not, it seemed everyone suddenly took stock of what Gunther accomplished since his title reign started. There have been a ton of great Intercontinental Champions, from Mr. Perfect to The Miz to Chris Jericho to Randy Savage, and but none hold a candle to what Gunther has accomplished. He took a mid-card title that was basically an afterthought, one that wasn’t even defended at WrestleMania 38, and he returned it to a level of glory it hasn’t seen probably since The Ultimate Warrior had it when he wrestled Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6. 

We should all be thankful for what he’s done for the title, and so many fans hit up X to pay their respects. Here’s a sample tweet…

The second most common reaction was happiness for Sami Zayn. He might not be at the very top of the card, but it’s hard to find a wrestler more fans have positive feelings about than Sami Zayn. He seemed destined to be a wacky side character up until a few years ago when he managed to turn what was supposed to be a short storyline with The Bloodline into one of the best things we’ve gotten in wrestling in a long time. That led to a main event on night one of last year’s WrestleMania, and it convinced WWE to slot him into this slot after Brock Lesnar, who was likely the original plan, was removed as an option following the Vince McMahon scandal.

Tonight really showed why WWE went the route they did. Few performers in the history of wrestling are able to convey emotion with their face and their body language better than Zayn. I was actually hoping Chad Gable would get the ‘Mania slot originally, but by the end of the match, Sami had me really pulling for him. There’s just something about him that’s so easy to connect with, which is probably why a picture of him holding his new title already has more than 25,000 likes… 

That being said, it would be disingenuous not to talk about the third group of reactions that are a little more lukewarm. They’re not about the match. Everyone loved the match, with many calling it the match of the night, but there are certainly some who believe someone else should have been the one to end Gunther’s streak. Zayn put in tremendous work over the last several weeks, particularly in his promos about believing in himself with Chad Gable, but it’s fair to say that he really didn’t have many interactions with Gunther until a month or so ago. Some people like Sheamus and Gable had a lot more history with him. You can see an example tweet along those lines below…

To be honest, I really connect with all three of these tweets. I’m blown away by how good Gunther has been since winning the IC Championship. It’s one thing to have a nice title reign. It’s quite another to single-handedly return a lost belt to its former glory. He did that, and while I’m sad to see him lose, I’m grateful for what we’ve gotten and stoked for the future.

In addition, I’m happy for Sami Zayn. He’s the best straight up actor on WWE’s roster, and he always makes the most of whatever he’s given, whether it’s a sideshow with Johnny Knoxville or a main event slot at 2023 Elimination Chamber. He’s a great example of how far you can go by overdelivering on whatever storyline you’re involved in.

And finally, I also have some second guesses about whether this was the right move. Anytime someone is this dominant of a champion for this long, people are going to question how the title reign ended. I’m going to question how the title reign ended, especially given how much I liked what Chad Gable was doing. It’s fair to wish Sami Zayn had a little more history with Gunther before we got here or to wish Chad Gable would have gotten his moment. Clearly there was an audible called, and not everyone is going to agree with the course chosen.

Regardless of whether things could have been or should have been done differently, a huge shoutout to Gunther for everything he’s done and for Sami Zayn on once again making the most of his moment. This is a match many of us will remember for years to come, and I can’t wait to see what happens next, as Zayn has a variety of potential challenges including Chad Gable and The Ring General himself.

We’ll likely find out where WWE is going to go with The Intercontinental Championship on Monday Night Raw in a few days, but before we get to that, we have another whole day of WrestleMania coming. You can watch WrestleMania XL via a variety of different methods, and you can check out my predictions, which sadly did not go as well as expected on Night 1.